1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an enclosure for covering an engine room of a lawn tractor or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many lawn tractors have an engine mounted on a front portion of a chassis, a driver's seat disposed in a rear region of the chassis, and a mower unit disposed between front and rear wheels. Typical engine hood structures are disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Publication Kokai No. 63-15280 and Japanese Patent Publication Kokai No. 4-501666. In each case, a control panel is disposed forwardly of the driver's seat to form a rear part of an engine room, and an engine hood is disposed forwardly of the control panel. The hood includes right and left side walls, a front wall and an upper wall formed integral with one another. The integrated hood is pivotally connected to a chassis frame to be vertically swingable, to be opened and closed, about a pivotal axis located in a lower front position of the hood.
In the above engine hood structure, the hood must have a lower end dimensioned to lie outwardly of various devices arranged in the engine room, so that the hood may be vertically swung with the lower end moving clear of those devices. Consequently, the hood has a large width in a lower portion thereof. This hood tends to present a stocky outward appearance, such as that of an agricultural tractor hood. Such outward appearance is not necessarily appropriate to a lawn tractor intended for ordinary household use or for use on a golf course or the like, for which lightness is a desired feature.
The large and heavy hood entirely covering the engine room must be opened and closed when the user carries out a simple maintenance operation such as refilling engine oil, changing plugs (in the case of a gasoline engine) or filling up the radiator with water (in the case of a water-cooled engine). Thus, there is room for improvement in handling facility also.